The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration appears to be using two contradictory datasets for its official temperature records, meteorologist Anthony Watts reports. The contradictory data cast doubt on NOAA’s assertion that 2012 was a year of record warmth in the United States.

Watts reports that he was looking up month-to-month average temperatures in the United States when he discovered NOAA was reporting higher temperatures to the press than were reflected in NOAA’s own data.

“On the eve of what will likely be a pronouncement from NCDC on 2012 being the ‘hottest year ever’, and since what I found is systemic and very influential to the press and to the public, I thought I should make my findings widely known now,” Watts reports.